Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!stanford.edu!agate!e260-1g.berkeley.edu!c60b-1eq From: c60b-1eq@e260-1g.berkeley.edu (Noam Mendelson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: C64 emulation. Message-ID: <1991Apr30.055513.13906@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 30 Apr 91 05:55:13 GMT References: <22498@yunexus.YorkU.CA> <1991Apr22.035236.25021@agate.berkeley.edu> <22590@yunexus.YorkU.CA> Sender: root@agate.berkeley.edu (Charlie Root) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 34 In article <22590@yunexus.YorkU.CA> rreiner@yunexus.YorkU.CA (Richard Reiner) writes: >c60b-1eq@e260-1e.berkeley.edu (Noam Mendelson) writes: >>Comparing a 386-33 to a C64 using dhrystones is ridiculous, considering >>the difference between the processor capabilities. >Now, the comparison of an i386 to a 6502 in integer and logic >performance alone (i.e. in what Dhrystone measures) may be ridiculous, >since this omits the more sophisticated capabilities of the i386 >(memory management, etc), but my statement about the relative >performance of the two processors is not wrong: You have it reversed; the Dhrystone includes the more sophisticated capabilities of the i386 unintentionally. If a cache is present, the benchmark will be skewed considerably. Not to mention that the 386 has more registers than the 6502 (register variables will tend to dramatically improve the results of the benchmark). Also, an average 386 machine will have much faster on-board memory, thereby reducing the delay when instructions must be fetched from memory. >There are so many benchmarks around that extreme care must be >exercised in interpreting them correctly. Careless statements, like >the one above claiming that my comparison is "wrong," only contribute >to the confusion. Agreed. Extreme care must be exercised in interpreting them. In most cases additional tests using other benchmarks are very helpful and tend to clear up the confusion caused by assertions based on insufficient data. -- +==========================================================================+ | Noam Mendelson ..!ucbvax!web!c60b-1eq | "I haven't lost my mind, | | c60b-1eq@web.Berkeley.EDU | it's backed up on tape | | University of California at Berkeley | somewhere." |